The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Psalm 33:17-22, “A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver
anyone by its great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who
hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have
hoped in You.”

Were you ever in a position that required someone else to help you out?
Well, hopefully, that “someone” was not a horse! There is no denial that
horses have strength; it’s simply that the kind of dilemma of which the
above verses speak, requires strength of mind, not merely of intelligence.
The love of horses toward humanity has long been demonstrated in a
variety of ways and means. Yet, the guidance of the LORD is greater!

The love of the LORD often prevents human death through a variety of
spiritual and social means. Not every “way out” is necessarily a “good
way” in the long run. Yet, the way “in” is always the way “out.”

Whatever dilemma you face in life, the LORD is your way of escape! He
alone loves you; thereby, He intensely wants you to be delivered. He alone
possesses the strength to deliver you from any and all dilemma.

Permit me to say it one more time: the LORD Jesus Christ can deliver you
from every negative situation. Simultaneously, He can provide full deliverence.
He just needs your permission; and that permission comes entirely through
a full and complete surrender of your will to Him. Trust Him!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

Psalm 33:18-22, “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
on those who hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have
hoped in You.”

Some dear and close friends of mine have lost loved ones in recent days.
I know from personal experience what it is to lose loved ones. Some have
left this life for the Better Life with the LORD. Others, unfortunately, have
trusted in mere human factors hoping to see life in eternity.

The Scripture quoted above says that the LORD is the object of true trust.
It is He who loves us and it is He who transports the souls of believers from
this life into Life Eternal in the heavens. In the meantime, the LORD is our
help, shielding us from the evil that would hold us captive, and giving us
hope of fellowship with Him in Heaven.

As much as we love those whom we have lost, we are comforted in knowing
that the spiritual care of our LORD Jesus Christ far exceeds the help and love
we mortals could ever have showed them. It is now in our loss that we need
His comfort; and it falls to us to show loving comfort for those whom He loves.

My prayers beg for His comfort for your hearts and souls. If you know Him,
you already know His comfort. If you don’t know Him, it is not yet too late.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

1 Samuel 13:10-14, “As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering,
behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.
11 But Samuel said, ‘What have you done?’ And Saul said, ‘Because I
saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come
within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at
Michmash,
12 therefore I said, “Now the Philistines will come down against me at
Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.” So I forced myself
and offered the burnt offering.’
13 Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now
the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
14 ‘But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for
Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as
ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.’”

Sometimes we just need to hurry! We see things that need attention, and
we simply attend to them. Sometimes, however, we get in a hurry and
become involved when we ought not to be.

Samuel had business elsewhere; but he set a time for his arrival and shared
the time with Saul. But, Samuel didn’t arrive when he told Saul he would. So,
Saul waited seven days and when he saw that Samuel had still not arrived,
he set about to offer the sacrifices that Samuel alone was qualified to offer.

When Samuel arrived and saw that Saul had offered a sacrifice on the altar,
he soundly rebuked him. Saul would probably have thought little of the rebuke,
except that Samuel said, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the
commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.”

We have absolutely no idea in the world what the LORD has in store for us,
His people. We just do what we “feel best” about doing. We even have a good
heart toward the LORD; but we “jump the gun” and lose the opportunity the
LORD had in store for us.

Oh, how often we do that in life! Remember David’s words in the Psalms:

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take
courage; yes, wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).

The LORD has a purpose for each of us, His children. His purposes always
exceed what we have in mind for ourselves. So, let Him be God in your life!
Everything will turn out better when the LORD is stearing the ship.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

1 John 3:4-8, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness;
and sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him
there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or
knows Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from
the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the
works of the devil.”

There are no less than 495 biblical references to the word “law.” With that
many clear notations, it is a wonder that we cannot seem to understand
the meaning of the word or where violation of it ultimately leads.

Worse yet, knowing the meaning, we continue to ignore that “the wages of
sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) and that our personal involvement is what is called
“sin.”

The clear key that opens the way out of sin and its imprisonment is called
repentance – deep sorrow for our involvement in sin, along with the sure
determination to hereafter avoid sinning. Moreover, the closer we live to
God, the less involvement we will have with sin. As the verse above says,
“No one who abides in Him” keeps on sinning.

Our plea is “I just can’t help sinning.” Yet, the Scripture says it’s because
we do not consciously “abide in Him.” Keeping our eys on Jesus and
living and following closely with Him is the open secret to avoid sinning.
Read the Bible daily! Pray for understanding and yield your life to Jesus.
All of this is the key! His way is always the best! God bless you!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

Genesis 41:1, 8b, “And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one
who could interpret them… “Pharaoh had a dream… and he said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about
you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give
Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

Have you ever had a dream? Of course, you have. But, have you ever had a dream you couldn’t figure out? Maybe it was a silly, senseless kind of dream where you were walking around in a huge crowd, looking for, but never finding
the friends you sought.

Maybe it was one like one I had. I was invited to preach in this country church;
and I was seated on the front pew when I suddenly realized I had come all that way and forgotten my Bible! (Fortunately, I awoke before I got to the pulpit, so
no one ever knew! Whew! Great it was just a dream!)

In the text above, Pharaoh had a dream that none of his servants could interpret.
One of the servants, however, had knowledge of Joseph’s interpretation of
Dream (You see, both of them were at one time in Pharaoh’s prison; and it was
there that Joseph had interpreted a dream for this servant. He remembered
Joseph and Pharaoh had Joseph summoned from prison so he could interpret
Pharaoh’s dream.

“Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.’” It was in that very moment that Joseph could have rehearsed
what he knew and taken credit for it. Yet, he refused to lie and gave Pharaoh a
truthful, humble answer.

It is not said that Joseph knew the answer to every dream. For all we know, he
only knew one: but he was careful to be humble and exalt the LORD as the One
who knows all the answers to everything! May the LORD help us to always be
humble about the things we know, and careful not to pretend we know everything!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom